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영어

James Joyce was known to be fascinated by the language of popular literature. His exposure to popular writing was extensive according to his letters. Joyce presents characters who are seduced and even shaped by the language around them. The consciousness of female characters in Ulysses and Dubliners has resonance of popular literature like novelettes, fairy tales, operas, lyrical poems, and pop songs. Gerty and Eveline look captives of surrounding discourses. Gerty could be regarded as grown-up Eveline after she refuses Frank's proposal of marriage. They are related intertextually to each other in that they have the same dream to get away from the family life with violent fathers. Romantic marriage is the picture of the Victorian happiness which strengthens the ideology of patriarchism. Gerty and Eveline long for marriage in vain. Gerty imagines Bloom is widowed or divorced, but that turns to be a false conjecture. Eveline selects one scenario for her own future and decides not to get involved in the marriage life. The scenario might be grounded on one of the novels she reads. A girl is subject to the tragic life if she is discarded after being sexually abused by a rogue in a story. And their futures are overshadowed by the ominous voices of their dead mothers. We hear the competing voices struggling to get the status of authority in the narrative. Narrative contains counter-narratives oriented to the opposite side. Polyphony of voices of opposition are inserted at odd angles to the major debates. Prevailing ideologies embodied in popular discourses over marriage and sexuality are subverted through Joyce's parody.